To paraphrase Michael Corleone: every time he thinks he’s in, they pull him back out.

A day after Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankee lineup from his long DL stint, he was a late scratch today because of a totally separate injury. Rodriguez jammed his left (non-throwing) thumb in Sunday’s win over the Twins. A Joe Mauer ground ball caught him the wrong way on a backhand.

“I just jammed my thumb a little bit on that play where Mauer hit it,” he said. “It kind of swelled up a little bit. Hopefully it’s just a day.”

The plan was to get it X-Rayed by Dr. Chris Ahmad after speaking to reporters. But Rodriguez said repeatedly that it felt like a one-day injury.

It was sore during yesterday’s off day, when he and a few other players attended a charity event. Today he was in the original lineup and took two rounds of early batting practice with Kevin Long. I saw him flexing his hand repeatedly toward the end of that BP. Apparently the pain was too much and he opted to come out.

“The good news is the knee feels great,” he said. “The knee feels great, body feels good, and hopefully it’s just a bump in the road here.”

Eric Chavez will play third base.

• A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the East Coast today at about 2 p.m. Though it was centered in Virginia, it could be felt in New York. By some people at least. Girardi was working out at the Stadium and said he didn’t feel anything, though some members of his coaching staff did.

Curtis Granderson doesn’t even know where he was when it hit.

“Once I was in the cab,” he said, “I got a text saying did I feel that. I said feel what? I didn’t feel anything.”

• With Rodriguez out of the lineup, Curtis Granderson was dropped into the 3-hole to provide power. Mark Teixiera was moved to cleanup. Derek Jeter takes Granderson’s usual 2-spot. Brett Gardner moves from ninth to leadoff.

• Girardi on Bartolo Colon’s second-half fade: “It just seems like he hasn’t been able to put people away. And he’s gotten into some deeper counts. They fouled more pitches off on him. And then eventually its kind of led to some mistakes that he’s made. So to me it’s the location, getting back to the location, and the movement, and the late movement, that’s worked for him.”

• Colon has thrown more innings this year than the last three years combined. Girardi said he might skip one of his starts after this turn through the rotation.